A unique blog dedicated to covering the worlds of book publishing and the news media, revealing creative ideas, practical strategies, interesting stories, and provocative opinions. Along the way, discover savvy but entertaining insights on book marketing, public relations, branding, and advertising from a veteran of two decades in the industry of book publishing publicity and marketing.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

All Books Should Be Published, No Matter What An Author Did Or Said

Some
book publishers are cancelling books because allegations have been raised about
the sexual misconduct of authors and illustrators.Mario and the Hole in the Sky is one such
book that got shelved as a result of the #MeToo condemnations.Those involved in harassment scandals include
NYT best-selling authors such as Bill O’Reilly and Donald Trump, political
journalists, and a National Book Award-winning novelist.However, is this a huge mistake by the book
publishing industry?

It should be noted that this debate is not whether those who break the law should be given a free pass. No, no. If someone violated another’s body, rights, or ability to work in s hostile-free society they should be punished. However, the punishment should not be that a book goes unpublished.

Now,
before we debate this, let’s first give some context.The book publishing industry has always –
knowingly – published books by unethical people, many of whom performed illegal
acts.Book publishers have sold millions
of books by wife-beaters, rapists, murderers, racists, harassers, mysoginists,
frauds, liars, and disgusting human beings.Why should now be any different?

Point
two, if you choose to ban books by authors accused of something – but not convicted,
and in many cases not even arrested or even sued – are you opening up a can of
worms?

Point
three, if you choose to focus on sexual harassment today, will you clean house
and stop selling books in your backlist that were written by sexually misbehaving
authors?

Point
four, will you look beyond sexual harassment and stop authors with other red
marks from being published?Should we
dismiss an author with a DUI or three of them?How about someone who served time for robberies?Or someone who publicly supports the KKK,
NRA, or Black Panthers?

Ok,
so we haven’t even delved deeply into this and you can see that there’s no easy
solution here.But let me throw a few
more things into the equation:

Who
is in a legitimate and responsible position to judge whether an author’s
behavior – or alleged behavior – warrants a book to be cancelled?People at the publish houses may misbehave
themselves – will they be judged too?And who will judge their judges?Can we publish based on rumor and accusation?

Should
publishers be obligated to state publicly the exact code of conduct they expect
authors to adhere to – and make it retroactive to past acts as well?Or will publishers secretly try to deal with
things on a case by case basis through a smell test?Let’s face it, publishers only stop a book if
they think it’ll lose money, is a hoax, or because they are being pressured by
outside forces to adhere to a moving ethical boundary that’s covered in
confusion and contradiction.

All
businesses have to determine what products they want to sell, which services to
provide, who should work for them, and how they should market themselves.But in almost all cases, we are talking about
widgets and things, but in this case, we’re talking about books – and free
speech.To me, there’s a higher standard
in place.Words trump all, in my mind.

Everyone
– yes, everyone, has the right to free speech, and to maintain free speech book
publishers should not look to squash it by refusing to publish a book solely
because they disagree with an author’s personal behavior.

I
know, I know, this is not so simple, you say, but maybe it needs to be.Rather than the book industry trying to
police behavior and make determinations best left to the courts, the book world
should publish any and all books even when the author is proven to be, by any
measure, a horrible person or a criminal.

Why
would I defend the rights of these alleged immoral burdens, these monsters and
violators of decency?

Because
I refuse to defend their actions or judge them.You should be punished if you violate the law, but you should never lose
your right to free speech.Even under
the Son of Sam Law that prevents convicted criminals from profiting from their
crimes don’t stop convicts from publishing books.The community of free ideas demands it.We depend on hearing the voices of all people
– not just whom we anoint as the kind of person we believe someone should be.

Now
that doesn’t mean there can’t be a public backlash against an author.If you choose not to buy someone’s book or if you want to speak out against that writer,
go ahead.If you want to write your own
book, do so.But do not stop the free
exchange of information and ideas.When
you do that, society suffers more than the writer you seek to punish.

Books
may be products and because they are sold, they are seemingly like anything
else up for sale.But they are not
widgets or donuts or cars.They embody
thoughts, experiences, and opinions.They
encase words to produce a cogent viewpoint.They are a piece of society, part of its fabric.Books are above our debates, above our
morals.They are free speech and they
must be allowed to be published, written, and distributed in an unfettered
matter.

I
know what I’m asking for here, that repugnant evil-doers be given more rights
and consideration than they did their victims.But I’m not saying don’t punish wrong-doers.Sue them, jail them, and get street justice if necessary, but do not let their acts exceed the value that society holds
dearly – free speech at the highest price.We kill for it.We must not stop
the act of publication, regardless of what an author did, said, or thinks.It’s the only way I know how to live, where a
free press runs independently of anything else that may need to be done to see
that justice takes place.

About Me

Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, is the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect (www.Media-Connect.com), formerly Planned Television Arts, and has been involved in book publicity and marketing since 1989. He has served several book publishing companies as a publicist, book editor, and acquisitions editor. Brian, who earned a BA in English from Brooklyn College, became a published author in 1995 when he penned The Florida Homeowner, Condo and Co-Op Handbook. He resides in Westchester, New York with his wife, two young children, and an English Bulldog.